Start your own timeline at OurStory.com4th entry

(3-24-11)

Gitl is busy getting ready for Shmuel's wedding. She finds a dress for Hannah, or by her new name, Chaya. It is a blue sailor's dress with white piping at the sleeves and neck. It also has a blue belt. Chaya thinks it is the ugliest thing she has ever seen. She tells this to Gitl and Gitl started talking about how that was very fancy for the country area that they lived in then. She said all the girls would be very jealous. Chaya couldn't imagine anybody being jealous of that. Gitl did Chaya's hair in a very fancy way, then started busying herself with other preperations for the wedding.

Vocab

  • Companionable- having the good qualities of a companion; friendly.
  • Mused- a guiding spirit; a source of inspiration.
  • Shtetl-a small Jewish town or village formerly found throughout Eastern Europe.
  • expansively- Broad in size or extent; comprehensive.
  • Thwack- smack; deliver with a hard blow to.


5th entry
(4-4-11)

Hannah is a very popular girl at the wedding. A girl named Rachel found her, who also introduced her to her other friends that were also interested in where she was from. The three other girls who also were Rachel's friends names were Shifre, Ester, and Yente-who was called Cossak by her friends. Rachel said that she was going to be her best friend, but Hannah told her that she would have to be her best freind in that place because she already had a best freind from where she was from her best friend's name was Rosemary. Rachel and her friends want to know everything about where Hannah is from. She tells them about the movies she has gone to. They are very curious about the what movies were and what the stories were about.

Vocab

Yarmulkes- A skullcap worn by religious Jews(especially at prayer)
Timidly- shyly: in a shy or bashful manner
Cossack- a member of a Slavic people living in southern European Russia and Ukraine and adjacent parts of Asia and noted for their horsemanship and military skill; they formed an elite cavalry corps in czarist Russia
Schnorrers- Yiddish term for "beggar" or "sponger". In German it is a name to describe a person, who frequently asks for little things such as ciggarettes, sums of money...
Badchan- meaning "joker" or "clown" is a scholarly comedian who traditionally entertains before and after Ashkenazic Jewish weddings.


Entry 6

Hannah finally meets Shmuel's bride-to-be. She is not exactly what Hannah expected. Hannah expected that she would be more elegant and things like that. She found that everybody, including women, had to work in this new place that she is now living in. When she reached up for Fayge's hand and found that it was rough and calloused, unlike the hand of a princess that she was expecting. She found that Fayge smelled like wood shavings and roses after a hard rain. They pulled up to the church where Shmuel and Fayge were to be married and found that there were big trucks waiting there. Shmuel was very confused, and so was everybody else. The trucks were the trucks of the Nazis'! They were there to take Shmuel and Fayge and all the other Jews with them to see the wedding to the border. Shmuel promised Fayge that no matter what he would marry her.

Vocab

Klezmer- Traditional eastern European Jewish music.
Riveted- Hold (someone or something) fast so as to make them incapable of movement.
Celebrants- A person who participates in a religious ceremony or rite. b. A person who officiates at a religious or civil ceremony or rite, especially a wedding.
Involuntery- Done without conscious control.
Malach Ha-Mavis- In Yiddish it means Angel of Death.


Entry 7

Hannah and the rest of the Jews in her new village are being taken to resettlement. Hannah is very scared and so are the rest of the Jews. They rode on the train for a very long time. Gitl started singing different songs and other Jews joined in. The rabbi prayed with some people. When they finally got to the place where they stopped, some Jews, including Fayge, found belongings of their other relatives who had apparently been there before them. Everyone was forced to take of their jewlery and give the Nazis their money for "safekeeping". After they were done getting harrassed by the Nazis, they were forced into a tiny boxcar. Nobody could sit down or bend over. A girl had to go to the bathroom and since there was none, she just went. Everybody was in God's hands now.

Vocab

Tante- aunt
bobbe meinses- tall tales
rabbi- A Jewish religious leader
Yankele- A Yiddish song
raggedly- scruffy

Nice work Moriah!! Mrs. W. 4/11



Entry #8
pgs.- 88-99

The group of Jews that Hannah was in were forced to stay at a place. They were forced to get their hair shaved, tattooed, undress in front of everybody, and take cold showers together. Hannah knows what can happen. She tries to tell the other Jews what might happen and that they should try to run away. The other Jews don't understand or want to risk running away. After the women got their hair shaved off, Hannah started crying because she felt lost in the middle of the room with faces that all looked the same. Hannah said that it felt like she was staring at a bunch of old men.

Vocab

Herrings- Any of various fishes of the family Clupeidae, especially a commercially important food fish of Atlantic and Pacific waters.

Hysteria- behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess.

Bissel- yiddish for a little bit.

Shikse- refers to an attractive gentile girl who might be a temptation to Jewish men and boys.

Alienate-cause someone to feel isolated or enstranged.


Entry #9
4/13/11
pgs. 99-110

When Hannah and Gitl woke up the next morning they found that the butcher's(the one who Shmuel wanted Gitl to marry in the start of the book) daughter had died. She was on her barrack and had her thumb in her mouth. Hannah tried to brush a fly off of her face, but Gitl slapped her. Hannah was very surprised and when Gitl realized what she had done, she gave Hannah a huge hug. Gitl was very upset because she didn't know how she was going to tell the father. After they found the daughter, they went to breakfast where a girl greeted them with a smile. She gave them a metal bowl and told them that they need to MEMORIZE their bowl, like the dents and where they were and stuff. If they were lose their bowl they would not eat.

Vocab

Vehemence- vigorous impetuosity; fury

Schnell- German surname that means fast or quickly.

Ampitheater- a sloping semicircular seating gallary.

Mikvah- a ritual purification bath taken by Jews on certain occasions.

Vulnerable- Susceptible to physical or emotional injury


10th Entry
4/17/11
pgs. 111-121
Now it was time for Hannah and the rest of the Jews who had also come a long way to be dehumanized. It was time to get their tattoos. The man who gave Hannah her tattoo had sad brown eyes. He recognized the dress that Hannah was wearing and he realized that it was the dress of his daughter who had died. He told her that his daughter was also named Chaya. He told her that she must live. She must live for Chaya. Hannah's number was J197241.

Vocab

privies- outhouse

shorn- to cut off something(such as hair, grass, or wool) with scissors or shears

garish- obtrusively bright and showy;lurid

affirmation- emotional support or encouragement

rote- mechanical or habitual repetition of something to learn

11th Entry
pgs. 122-131

The girls met a girl named Rivka. She had been there a really long time and she was able to tell them the rules there. The rules literally meant life or death. They seemed like pointless rules to Hannah, but she is trying very hard to obey them. The kids under 13 had to hide whenever the Commandant came. They hid in the garbage can. Hannah and Rivka and Shifre and the other older kids helped the younger kids save their lives. Hannah grabbed a baby that was taking a bath and jumped into the garbage can with it.

Vocab

Corpse- a dead body, especially the dead body of a human
Blokova- a prisoner in charge of the camps
Resist- to strive to fend off or offset the actions, effects, or force of
Ominously- menacing, threatening
Drek- trash



12th entry
pgs. 132-143

The women and Hannah were all together one night. Gitl was telling them what she had heard about the men. Shmuel and the butcher and some other men were ok. They were doing work they were used to. Fayge's father, the badchan and some other men who was with them had been, unfortunately, chosen. They were to die. Gitl said that they should say a proper prayer. Hannah didn't know where she had heard it, but she somehow knew it and joined in.

Vocab
Shmatte- yiddish for a rag
Kaddish- a prayer recited in the daily synagogue services and by mourners after the death of a close relative
Sonorous- having or producing song
Zugangi- new comer, someone who came in
Midden- a dunghill or refuse heap

13th entry
pgs. 144-155

Gitl,Yitzchack(the butcher),Shmuel,Hannah, and some other Jews from that town have a plan that they want to run away from the camp. Hannah is given a pair of shoes that Gitl stole from the Blokova. She said that Hannah deserved good shoes for the trip. When it was time to meet the men, Gitl and Hannah heard shots being fired. They stood still, then ran back. The next morning at role call, the 4 men who were caught were standing in front of everyone. The Commandant was very angry. He took the men to the wall. Shmuel was smiling. Fayge ran up and fell at his feet. They shot her too. Hannah realized that Yitzchack was not there. He probably escaped! She imagined him running through the forest to freedom.

Vocab

Abruptly- unexpectedly, sudden
Ribono shel-oylam- Master of the Universe
Defiantly- in a rebellious manner
Superimposed-to lay or place something on or over something else
Irony- the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning


14th entry
pgs. 156-166

Hannah, Ester, Shifre, and Rikva were standing by where you get the water. Hannah was telling them about how in the future, there would still be Jews left. That they would be free. She didn't remember how she knew that, she just did. The girls did not understand how she could remember the future, but they listened anyway...Until a new guard found them. He said that he needed 3 Jews who were not working and at that time all 4 of them were not working. He chose the 3 other than Hannah. Hannah took the scarf off of Rikva's head and put it on her own and followed the guard. When she entered the room, there was a number and a letter on the door. It was 4N. 4 for the number of people in her family and N for New Rochelle. When she entered the room she saw her family sitting around the table. She sat next to her aunt and they talked about what really happened.

Vocab

Nevertheless- in spite of that, nonetheless, however
Liebchen- sweetheart
Babushka- a headscarf tied under the chin
Matzah-  a crisp biscuit of unleavened bread, traditionally eaten by Jews during Passover
L'chaim- a word to express good wishes just before drinking an alcoholic drink


15th entry
pgs 167-170

There were many true things that happened in this book. Most of the names are made up, but they make up the bits and pieces of the story that is true. The author tells us the truth about the concentration camps. They were not camps  they were factories designed for murder.
Vocab

Conformation- information that confirms or verifies
Haggadah- talmudic literature that does not deal with law but is still part of Jewsih tradition.
Routinization- to make routine, to make common by repition
Amalgam- a combination of different things
Malnutrition- a state of poor nutrition